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Fort Smith K9s Get New Training Spot

The life of a police canine is essentially all work and no play, and for the Fort Smith K9 unit, the work just got a lot easier.

More than 60 volunteers with Mars Petcare helped construct a new training site for the Fort Smith Police Department’s four canine officers — Kilo, Vigo, Kane and Chico. The site, just behind the Mars Petcare plant at Chaffee Crossing, officially opened with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday.

It took the volunteers three days to build, but took nearly five months to plan and cost about $5,000, site manager Chris Haas said.

Mars Petcare is an international business based out of Brussels, Belgium, that manufactures several major pet food brands including Pedigree, Whiskas and Cesar. Haas said the company covered the bill for the new facility at no cost to the police department.

Fort Smith Mayor Sandy Sanders commended the partnership between business and law enforcement.

“It’s terrific,” Sanders said. “We’re very indebted to Mars Petcare for all their help to the K9 unit.”

The Fort Smith plant started to donate food to the police canines about a year ago, and since then management decided they could help out even more by donating an unused plot of land for a training site that will be available to police 24/7, Haas said.

“It’s been a great opportunity for us,” Haas said. “They gave us an opportunity to take it to the next level.”

The old site was near Garrison Avenue, about a city block wide and covered in gravel, but it had limited training obstacle courses for the dogs, Sgt. Brian Rice said. The new facility gives the dogs more training opportunities, grass to run on and is closer to each of the officers’ homes.

In addition to a jumping course that was brought over from the previous location, the new site features a catwalk and an A-frame to climb over and a set of sniff boxes, Rice said. Police place an item they want the dogs to find, like a narcotic, in one of the boxes and let them seek it out.

“The space wasn’t the issue; it was the money,” Rice said.

Rice’s dog, Rico, is a former member of the Fort Smith K9 unit and retired about a year ago.

Each dog is purchased from Louisiana and trained in Germany and sometimes other places in Europe, causing the dogs to respond to commands in a mix of languages, Rice said. Training begins practically at birth and the canines undergo an annual certification process from the U.S. Police Canine Association and the Arkansas State Police. The new training courses are still awaiting certification, Haas said.

Rice estimated it takes about $12,000 to $16,000 to train, ship and care for each dog.

“They are friendly but they are trained to attack people as well,” Rice said.

The officers assigned to each dog keep them at their homes. Kane has patrolled the longest of the four, for about three years with officer Don Kasper. Kilo has been with officer Travis Watkins for about two years, while officer Joey Boyd has been with Vigo for about a year and a half. Chico is the newest addition, having spent less than a year with Officer Cody Elliott.

The officers said Kane and Chico, the dog selected to give a demonstration at the facility’s opening, tend to be more energetic than their two counterparts. Boyd said his dog, Vigo, is the biggest of the bunch, and has a slower, more methodical approach to law enforcement.

Boyd also has another dog at his home — a Siberian husky — which he keeps separated from Vigo with a dividing fence in his yard. While the husky gets to play, he said Vigo is always hard at work.

“The family doesn’t get to love on him,” Boyd said.

Boyd’s dogs sleep in separate kennels, and when Vigo is let out he goes straight to the patrol vehicle, Boyd said.

Officers write a letter of intent when a spot opens up in the K9 unit, and after a review process, the entire unit votes on who gets the new dog, Boyd said. Dog maintenance responsibility falls solely on the officer, from cleaning up dog hair in the patrol car to anything else the canines might leave behind.

“No matter what, they’re with us from start to finish,” Boyd said. “The dog is like a child to us.”